I'm on my way to clean out the pantry. Wish me luck. Why is it that so many spaces seem to have minds of their own? The second you turn your back, they re-arrange themselves into total chaos. You straightened it to your liking, but does it stay that way? Nope. I think I've done this pantry 150 times. Well... that might be a slight exaggeration, but not much of one.
It's January which means it's the perfect time to go through and examine the shelf-life on items. Yes, capers could probably survive a nuclear blast, but do you really want to put them in something you've made if they're that old? Probably not. Same with your spices. Go through your stash and get ready to dump. I know it's hard; those little bottles seem too good to throw out. But, if you haven't used that curry powder since the great tampolie fiasco of '04, it's not curry anymore. Time to pitch it. Trust the girl who grew up in McCormick Land!!! We know about spices and dry ingredients.
The most wonderful smell comes over the city and surrounding counties when McCormick is producing cinnamon. And, many is the day when there's a peppery bite to the air when that's in production. Ah, what a smell! When they brought down the old plant in the Inner Harbor, I swear you could smell spices for months as they cleared the rubble of walls that had been steeped for decades in spice production. That was a beautiful old building and we were all sad when they made the decision to drop it.
We love to collect them and have them on hand. But, if your spices are older than six months- okay I'll be reasonable, if they're older than a year they're no longer true and your cooking efforts won't shine. Send that ancient Paprika to a Hungarian gypsy grave! Going forward, if it' not a spice or herb you use pretty regularly, just buy the smaller containers. That way you won't feel like you're wasting it.
Oh, so onto what I wanted to say when starting this: Please, please, please, it's so cold out. They need you so much right now. If you feed the birds, make sure there's plenty for them. If you don't regularly, as you're looking through your cupboards and come across stale bread, old crackers, toss them out for the birds. Same with old fruit. If you have an orange that you don't want, cut it in half and leave it on the deck rails. They have to eat to keep up their body temp and now that the ground is hard or snow covered, if they don't get something from us, they'll go hungry.
Have a great weekend. I'll talk with you more if I make it out of the pantry alive. Better go find a hard hat first...those bottles hurt when they jump off the shelf at me.
Namaste' Till Next Time,
Holly
It's January which means it's the perfect time to go through and examine the shelf-life on items. Yes, capers could probably survive a nuclear blast, but do you really want to put them in something you've made if they're that old? Probably not. Same with your spices. Go through your stash and get ready to dump. I know it's hard; those little bottles seem too good to throw out. But, if you haven't used that curry powder since the great tampolie fiasco of '04, it's not curry anymore. Time to pitch it. Trust the girl who grew up in McCormick Land!!! We know about spices and dry ingredients.
The most wonderful smell comes over the city and surrounding counties when McCormick is producing cinnamon. And, many is the day when there's a peppery bite to the air when that's in production. Ah, what a smell! When they brought down the old plant in the Inner Harbor, I swear you could smell spices for months as they cleared the rubble of walls that had been steeped for decades in spice production. That was a beautiful old building and we were all sad when they made the decision to drop it.
We love to collect them and have them on hand. But, if your spices are older than six months- okay I'll be reasonable, if they're older than a year they're no longer true and your cooking efforts won't shine. Send that ancient Paprika to a Hungarian gypsy grave! Going forward, if it' not a spice or herb you use pretty regularly, just buy the smaller containers. That way you won't feel like you're wasting it.
Oh, so onto what I wanted to say when starting this: Please, please, please, it's so cold out. They need you so much right now. If you feed the birds, make sure there's plenty for them. If you don't regularly, as you're looking through your cupboards and come across stale bread, old crackers, toss them out for the birds. Same with old fruit. If you have an orange that you don't want, cut it in half and leave it on the deck rails. They have to eat to keep up their body temp and now that the ground is hard or snow covered, if they don't get something from us, they'll go hungry.
Have a great weekend. I'll talk with you more if I make it out of the pantry alive. Better go find a hard hat first...those bottles hurt when they jump off the shelf at me.
Namaste' Till Next Time,
Holly
1 comment:
This made me giggle and think about the birds and it's going right to my sister, Kathy, who was tackling her pantry just yesterday.
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